It was going so well... Graun on Our Bodies Our Selves

[leafinthewind]

This article about Our Bodies Our Selves starts off so well: www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/apr/22/our-bodies-ourselves-clitoris-pain-pap-smears-womens-health

I didn't know the history and it was really interesting: women educating themselves about their bodies and lives. The last quarter of the article is about a different topic, though. (You can all guess what it is.)

I don't know how anyone can spend money on a paper with that written in it anymore*. It is complete nonsense and sounds like the writer has been abducted by aliens or something.

• I used to

The end is utterly bizarre. It's like the paper cannot have an article about women, without tagging on a public announcement about gender identity.

*Public service announcement

Total stupidity

Simple as that

The first three quarters is really interesting. The last quarter is not relevent to women's biological bodies and I'm not sure why it's included. Unless of course it's referring to transmen, which I don't think it is.

So disappointing. I am not bothered by the existence of 'trans bodies, trans selves'.

I would be bothered by 'our bodies, our selves' referring to a woman's penis or prostate.

I am bothered, very bothered, by the women whose lived experience of repression was so strong she was part of the team that developed this book mentioning some women have a penis and testicles. Bah.

Glad it wasn't just me who found the last part really jarring. Still, the legacy of the original project (about women, for women, by women) is really amazing.

Wow. A deletion for a perfectly measured post stating the bleeding obvious. What exactly are we allowed to say?

I was too afraid of that to read that feature. Unfortunately I just came across today's stupid Australian First Dog on the Moon cartoon they run, today titled 'leave trans kids alone' and it's possibly the most idiotic, misinformed load of bollocks they've printed yet. (Lots of 'literally's and 'problematic's and plenty of 'no debate's, natch)

I was really impressed by their observation and understanding that the book was not so much translated as "adapted":

abortion and same-sex relationships are still illegal in Uganda, and so Namumbejja Abwoye had to find a way to write about such issues covertly: “In my generation, we had some code words that we had come up with to talk about things that were a taboo, ensuring that the opposite sex or our elders would not know what we were talking about,” she says. “So I depended on such language to talk about certain aspects in the book.”

I suppose the "One person’s body may have a penis and testicles, and be a woman’s body. Another person’s body may have breasts or a clitoris, and be a man’s body" non-sense is the code needed nowadays to be allowed to keep the women's version of the book circulating in the West.

@BraveBananaBadge

I was too afraid of that to read that feature. Unfortunately I just came across today's stupid Australian First Dog on the Moon cartoon they run, today titled 'leave trans kids alone' and it's possibly the most idiotic, misinformed load of bollocks they've printed yet. (Lots of 'literally's and 'problematic's and plenty of 'no debate's, natch)

That's a LOT of text for a so-called cartoon.

I suppose the "One person’s body may have a penis and testicles, and be a woman’s body. Another person’s body may have breasts or a clitoris, and be a man’s body" non-sense is the code needed nowadays to be allowed to keep the women's version of the book circulating in the West.

Yes. Depressing.

One person’s body may have a penis and testicles, and be a woman’s body. Another person’s body may have breasts or a clitoris, and be a man’s body

That doesn't even make sense. A person with a penis is a biological man, will always be a biological man, will never have a woman's body. The reverse is true too. Major gaslighting and actually triggering for some women. Trans people gender identity is different to their biological bodies, that is more the truth.

That's a really interesting observation MedusasBrandyButter

God the Guardian is full of crap today. I read the FDOTM thing, jesus, not much for thinking.

I too really enjoyed this article and was all posed to send it to a GC friend with a comment about how it's all about the biology, when I read the last paragraph and felt all deflated and sad again

Love the idea of a book on trans bodies trans selves for the trans population to read and discover more about like minded / bodied individuals. Though presumably two books would be needed, or at least two subsections.

However a book about helping women understand their bodies, especially in the face of abuse by men, ignorance and disinterest by the heavily male medical and political establishment, has no need to discuss penises as being part of said women's bodies.

Sigh

Ah yes, I read that and was tremendously irritated by it.
The tldr is:
Education, general knowledge and research has primarily focused on male bodies, with women having little access to information about their own bodies.
Here was this amazing movement that helped give women the information they've been lacking for centuries and are still lacking.
Of course, now we are even more 'progressive', so thats out of date and we're putting the focus on male bodies instead of female again. 🙄
These people's minds are so open, their brains have fallen out.

"One person’s body may have a penis and testicles, and be a woman’s body. Another person’s body may have breasts or a clitoris, and be a man’s body"
Erm, no. Not really

There's a fawning interview with Caster Semenya too.

Sample:

"Michael Phelps’s arms are wide enough for him to do whatever he wants. Swimmers’ lungs are different to other people’s. Basketball players like LeBron James are tall. If all the tall players are banned from playing, will basketball be the same? Usain has amazing muscle fibres. Are they going to stop him, too? My organs may be different and I may have a deep voice, but I am a woman.”

I 🙄 at the last bit of that article. Nothing escapes TRA capture, does it. Nothing is allowed to be about Women, any more.
It's all about the menz.

The original book is the subject of a hour long special tonight:

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000vg8f

Presented by Laura Barton of the Guardian so don't be surprised if there's switching between being war with Eastasia and war with Eurasia.

In spite of Laura Barton's irritating vocal delivery, vaguely breathy and a bit feeble, I got to the end.

The book Trans Bodies, Trans Selves made its appearance at 20.45 and then there was a blizzard of trans, bodies having penises, gender identities, cis-gendered women, and the rest. The trans stuff got 7 minutes out of 60. Not bad for such a marginalised group representing maybe 0.3% of the population.

Give it a listen, it's very interesting. And you've got the timings of where you can fast forward if you're not in the mood for the #genderwoowoo.

Could anyone tell me how the Guardian are doing financially? Surely the antipathy of all these left leaning gc women - and men- have hit them in the pocket by now?

@SusannahMartin

Could anyone tell me how the Guardian are doing financially? Surely the antipathy of all these left leaning gc women - and men- have hit them in the pocket by now?

Sorry, haven't got time to read them first, but here they are: www.theguardian.com/gmg/2015/jul/27/guardian-media-group-annual-financial-reports

Press release www.theguardian.com/gnm-press-office/2020/jul/15/guardian-media-group-plc-gmg-publishes-201920-statutory-financial-results-and-announces-proposals-to-position-the-business-for-future-growth-and-reduce-costs